by Matthew Peed
“Sir Regan’s core. I’m not sure if this will work, but I want you to try to link with it. DO NOT attempt to take it over. Think of it more along the lines of asking it for cooperation,” Jarvis said with a stern look at me.
“I don’t know. This feels like . . . it could be . . . dangerous to Regan,” I said, moving up to the orb. Looking at it closer, I saw it had to be five or six meters in diameter. How much mana had Regan used to create something like this?
“I understand your hesitations, but there is nothing to worry about. This is actually a test that Sir Regan wanted to perform. Though, I admit under much more controlled circumstances and of course with him being present.”
I looked at Jarvis for a long moment as I tried to decide what to do. Even now I could feel more undead flowing into my aura. They’d already reached nearly three thousand, with little evidence that they would be stopping soon. Something needed to be done.
I moved closer to the orb. There was so much magic that heat was actually being put off. I held my hand up and sent my aura out from my body. The defense magic activated instantly. The orb, which had been alternating colors up until this point, shifted to a crimson.
“WARNING! CEASE INSTANTLY OR RISK TERMINATION!” Regan’s voice sounded out, echoing throughout the room like an angry god.
I jumped back, not wanting to risk it. The orb stayed red for a few moments before it shifted back to its colorful state. “It’s impossible . . . we’ll be . . . destroyed,” I said, looking over to Jarvis. I could sense the spell that had been building up. It would have reduced us to something less than dust.
“My apologies, Lady Alara. A moment,” he said and started pacing again.
~~~
City of Jordan, Thonaca Kingdom
“Any word, Urena?”
“No, my lord. The worms have holed themselves up with the coming winter,” Urena said with a shake of her head.
“Damn. I don’t want a repeat of Terneo. There was too much collateral damage for my taste,” Valamar said, overlooking the city of Jordan.
One of the southernmost cities in Thonaca, it was the closest city to his home. The Church had a large presence there but not large enough it appeared to control the necromancer scum that had managed to take hold in the city.
“I fear there may be no other choice, my lord,” Urena replied while checking her bladed hands.
Valamar had managed to calm the seething rage over the last months. With each necromancer he killed, it was like the fire died ever so slightly. He’d also gotten accustomed to the almost overwhelming power that flowed in his body now. He still remembered when he could cause a tree to shatter to splinters just by resting his hand on it.
“How many?”
“Twenty, spread across ten buildings. It appears they are in pairs, which supports our information of the larger infestations,” Urena reported, then got a sour look. “No one suspects married couples of being evil.”
“Ingenious, to be honest. Everyone watches out for the man dressed in a dark robe by himself. But a couple out buying dinner? I certainly wouldn’t suspect them,” Valamar said, shaking his head at his own naivety.
“Orders, my lord?” Urena asked.
“I’ll rain fire. You hunt any that try to escape,” Valamar replied.
“Understood,” Urena said with a salute, then melted into shadows.
Valamar looked back to the city and channeled mana into the ring on his back. He floated into the air, then shot off into the sky, quickly reaching the same height as the clouds. Night was upon them, and only Krona was in the sky tonight.
Locating each of the buildings, Valamar raised his four arms into the air above his head. Using terra, fire, air, and water mana, he created a spell that was in the top ten of his most-destructive list. Ten objects formed around him, each quickly becoming close to five meters long and over a meter in diameter.
A white flame flashed around them, the water mana working to reduce the interference from that branch of mana. When the spell was complete, Valamar made sure to aim, using his heightened senses to judge the targets. With one last push of mana, he flung the flaming pillars down.
Ten streaks of light appeared to flash through the air before they hit their spots throughout the city. With the ancient barriers that would have protected it from such an attack still weak from the terraquake of over a month ago, the streaks of light ripped through them with ease. The people who were still on the street didn’t even have a chance to yell or scream before the lights hit the city.
Ten booms echoed out at the same time, and everyone in the city was awakened by the massive explosions that rocked it and its surroundings for nearly forty kilometers. The damage, as far as Valamar could see, was contained to just the single building. He’d used air mana to make a cyclone around the explosion that pulled it up into the air rather than trying to block it completely.
People streamed into the streets as guards and soldiers rushed about to see if they were under attack. Valamar noticed that there were very few soldiers among the people running around. He took note of it before he flew back to the cliff overlooking the city.
An hour or so later, Urena reappeared from the shadows.
Valamar eyed her. “Well?”
“Only one was not home during the attack. He attempted to make a run for it, but he didn’t get very far,” she reported.
“Why are there so few soldiers? Have you heard anything?”
“The king called for arms. They are about to wage war. I couldn’t get a clear answer on the target.”
“I think we both know where he is,” Valamar said, looking to the north. He wasn’t sure how, but he could sense Ezal even this far south. He’d thought it was a happy illusion to help himself cope, but after so many months, he knew it was something more magical in nature.
“What do you want to do, my lord?” Urena asked, kneeling.
Valamar looked from the north to the south. His father was the biggest traitor of them all. He wanted me to marry a necromancer so she could sacrifice me, he recalled. He needed to get his revenge, not just for himself but for the friends who’d perished due to being with him. That meant little, however, if his love and her family and friends were killed by an army.
“Let’s go,” Valamar said before he shot into the air. Urena sank into his shadow and used that to follow.
Chapter 31
Regan
“I’m going to have to ask you to stop breaking the universe,” Creation said as he leaned back against the pew he sat at.
I looked around and found I was in a grand cathedral that appeared to stretch on forever. Millions of people could fit easily and likely wouldn’t even be bothering each other.
Creation sat at a pew in another form. Male this time, he was at least four meters tall and radiated power. He was wearing clothes from Earth’s modern era that looked to be what most people might consider his Sunday best.
“What’d I do now?” I asked with a grin as I moved to sit on the pew next to him.
“You, a complex being of the measurable power of a lesser god, entered a universe that barely has the energy to support itself. I know you were trying to only send your mind, but the mind is where most of your power sits,” Creation said with a very audible sigh.
“Creation, leave him alone. He’s barely even a baby,” a new voice said from my other side.
I turned to see a woman who had likely caused a few countries to fight in the past. The first thing that came to mind was Helena of Troy. There were no words to describe her beauty, but I could also tell any attempt to touch her would only spell destruction.
“Destruction, this is my area. I would ask you to leave,” Creation said. While it sounded rude to me, I could tell there was no emotion implied.
“I would tell you no. This is no longer just your area,” Destruction said with a smile that made me more scared than interested, no matter how beautiful it was. “I have you to thank for that.”
“Me? What
’d I do?” I asked, nervous that I’d just upset some cosmic game of good and evil.
Destruction and Creation both started laughing. “Good and evil?! Mortal thoughts.”
“Um,” I mumbled, unsure what was going on.
“We are forces of the absolute, of everything. I create everything. My sister destroys everything,” Creation explained.
“I see, I think,” I said, mulling it over. “Anyway . . . what am I doing here exactly?”
Creation yawned, then said, “It was either this or die.”
“Die?!”
“Your little universe couldn’t support your mind. I didn’t think you’d dive into it like that. As I AM Creation, I didn’t want a newborn to go to waste.”
I glanced over to Destruction, who was wearing a smile. “I feel like you broke some rules for me,” I said, rubbing the back of my head.
“Not quite broke, just bent. You and that universe were meant for me,” Destruction said, licking her lips.
I gave a tight laugh. “I didn’t exactly have much choice in the matter. So, what does this mean for me exactly?”
“You get to watch,” Creation and Destruction said in almost perfect sync.
“Watch?”
“Watch the coming events of that valley. Let’s hope the little mortals are able to protect it by themselves,” Destruction said.
I jerked out of the pew but only made it one step before chains that appeared to be made from galaxies wrapped around me. I knew instinctively that I couldn’t break free no matter how hard I tried. I attempted to just move my arm, only to find I couldn’t budge.
“Surely there’s something else we can do!” I yelled.
Destruction clapped her hands, and sound disappeared from around me. “That’s enough whining. It’s been decided by the scales. That’s the end of it.”
Creation moved up next to me. “Sorry, my friend. This is the price to pay for your life,” he said, patting my shoulder.
A hole opened under me and I fell. I wasn’t sure how long I fell, but I suddenly found myself in my main core. I could see everything in my aura like normal. I folded my arms and sighed at my predicament. “What now?”
I attempted to interact with my core and could clearly feel a barrier blocking me. I tried several different methods but couldn’t get past it. Deciding I was stuck for now, I turned my attention to the happenings of my dungeons.
Deciding to check the one thing that worried me the most, I looked to Soza and found her napping around the subcore just like I left her. I didn’t think she would attempt to destroy me, but it had been nagging at the back of my mind. At least she was sort of doing her job.
Steel Spire was quiet for the most part. I noticed some destruction here and there but couldn’t figure out the cause from the context. There were quite a few more mortals since the last time I’d checked it. At least it looked like it was safe there.
Looking to my main dungeon and the valley dungeon, I found the population had nearly doubled. While the apartment buildings I’d created were being used at about thirty percent, the rest of the new population were dwelling in tents on the outside of the city. Likely, they were people from the cities and towns that Louella wanted to rescue.
I couldn’t find either her or Alara in my main dungeon aura. I did find that Ignea was in my main core room with all the defenses activated. She would only do something like that if there was a serious threat to my core. My sense of urgency spiking, I looked around and managed to find what I thought was the likely source.
A group of goblins were fighting a creature that I wasn’t quite sure how to describe. I only had to wonder why they weren’t using mana on it for a few seconds when a fireball hit it and caused it to grow nearly a centimeter. I wasn’t too worried, as the bullets the goblins were firing at it were definitely making a dent.
I looked over to Alara’s dungeon, pleased that I could still do that. I felt that it was under control, and I really couldn’t help if I wanted to, but I still couldn’t find her. Lena was also in Alara’s core room, and they’d raised all the defenses that I had put there in order to protect her in case the necromancers ever managed to reach her core room.
I finally found Alara on Alpha in the core room with Jarvis and the captains. Jarvis was pacing as he did when he was attempting to figure something out. I tried to understand the situation from just the context clues but didn’t get very far. I’d been watching for a minute when I realized I sensed undead in my aura on the surface.
When I looked outside Alpha, sure enough, there was an army gathering on the edge of my aura. If the undead core was aware that I was gone somehow, he might have been attempting to recapture Alara. That’s when I realized that Jarvis was likely trying to have Alara link to Alpha’s core. It was something we’d talked about a while ago but never got around to testing. Mainly it was in case I had to completely destroy her core if she couldn’t control it.
With the defenses I’d left on that core, no one within a thousand kilometers would be able to access it without enough mana to flatten a few cities in the process. This world kept throwing me for loops, and I never knew what to prepare for. It was getting to be annoying.
Jarvis stopped pacing and moved over to the core. He raised his hand but stopped just a few centimeters from the core shielding, which was a wise decision. Even he would be vaporized if he attempted to access the core like this. I thought quickly, wondering what the hell I could do to help.
Those spells were linked to my main core. They drew their mana from it since that would keep most from being able to destroy the power source before getting to the core. I’d seen plenty of movies and knew that you needed the generator to be off-site. I split my attention to my main core.
Ignea was the second child I’d summoned. That my link to her was the strongest of all my children was a fact that didn’t help me much right now. I snapped my ethereal fingers. She was my dungeon fairy, though I didn’t take advantage of that fact very often. She knew everything about the dungeon as long as she thought about it. But more importantly, she knew about my avatar body, which I was currently using nearly full-time.
I moved to sit in a meditation pose just to help myself get into the mood. I wasn’t sure if this would help at all, but it was worth a try. I concentrated on my avatar body, which the two absolute beings had decided to let me keep, and focused on changing a single part of it.
“I hope I don’t break the universe again,” I mumbled as I started.
Chapter 32
Louella
The mana in the area was almost physical as I watched Ezal and her company rise into the air. With Ezal at the center, the other mages were acting as conduits, channeling an increasingly larger amount of mana to her from almost forty mages who were still inside the fort. The people with her all manifested displays of mana similar to her own. Their bodies were leaking flames, or their hair had turned to burning flames.
While I sort of knew what this spell was supposed to accomplish, it had never been tested before. Of course, using magic of that scale drew the entire enemy’s attention to them. The elemental beasts turned en masse toward the floating Fire mages. They slammed into the barriers surrounding the fort, causing cracks to form. I worried for only a moment before mages started to reinforce the barrier surrounding the floating mages.
The enemy clearly felt that they needed to stop the magic being worked as their forces started to rush the walls. With the battle about to enter a melee, it would take a turn, and I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. They did outnumber us close to twenty to one. We hadn’t even been able to get accurate counts before our scouts were forced to withdraw, so that information was lacking.
Knights and soldiers with tower shields made the front of the wave of enemies. Enchanted to withstand most common magic and projectiles, they made a moving wall that most people would find hard to overcome. I could make out ladders and other siege equipment getting closer to the wall under heavy protection from the enem
y forces.
“Target those ladders! We can’t let them get on the wall!” I shouted, my voice amplified by magic to reach everyone in the fort. Fire mages set simple spells that highlighted the location of the siege weapons as they were spotted. After that, mages and archers on the wall started to unleash hell on the enemy.
One particular enterprising individual sent a burst of terra mana that caused the ground to explode from under the enemy’s feet. The ladder and most of the soldiers around it were torn to shreds before one of their Terra mages got the writhing land under control. Similar scenes could be seen along the wall.
As the enemy got closer, we were able to cause much stronger magic without using extra mana in the process to cross the distance. The hundred meters in front of the wall was no different from a kill box. The problem was they had the bodies to force the divide. Their priest detachment was also strong. People who didn’t suffer a fatal wound would get back up and continue to charge.
With the front lines still mostly under control, I turned to look at the elemental beasts trying to tear their way into the spell formation. While our barriers were strong thanks to Regan’s library helping our mages increase their power, they wouldn’t last forever. I needed to deal with at least two of the things.
“Gulv, how about we have some fun?” I asked the elemental curled around my neck. He chirped and I smiled. I channeled as much excess mana that I felt was safe for me to use into him. He started to grow before my eyes, so I shot into the sky. Wouldn’t want to destroy the gate myself, after all.
Over the course of about thirty seconds, he went from being just a bit shorter than a meter to well over forty or fifty. He roared and managed to shake the entire battlefield. I spun Helios and decided to take out the fire phoenix. Gulv turned and started making his way after the water dragon. I wondered if he thought it was a challenge for there to be another dragon on the field.